HEADS UP CHAMP: YAGINUMA

Jesse Yaginuma (Silver Spring, MD)
Champion - $25,600

Jesse Yaginuma avenges his only loss of the double elimination format to take down the heads up championship over Mike Leah.

Yaginuma comes out of the loser's bracket to beat Leah twice to take the title. "It feels great," he says, "it was a good day."

Leah was 6-0 as the winner's bracket champion, and needed to beat Yaginuma once for the championship, but after losing the first game he never gets on track. "I'm very disappointed," says Leah who collects $16,000 for second place, "he earned it and I didn't play very well."

Once Yaginuma gets the chip lead in the final match he never let it go. "We played a lot of medium sized pots," says the champion who wins $25,600, "when the blinds got bigger, he got shorter, but he played great. I caught some cards and ran pretty well.

Yaginuma was in the loser's bracket because of his championship bracket loss to Leah Thursday night. Yaginuma regroups to beat Matt Vance in the loser's bracket final and then beats Leah twice.

Both players are now gearing up for the Main Event and say they're likely to play in Saturday's Day 1A.

Mike Leah (Toronto, Canada)
2nd Place - $16,000